Feminist Jurisprudence

To define feminist jurisprudence, it is useful first to consider its component parts. Jurisprudence is the philosophy or theory of the law. Feminism is the belief in-and support of-the political, economic, social, and legal equality of women and men. Feminism rejects patriarchy and gender bias, and is fundamentally results oriented.

Feminist jurisprudence is a feminist analysis of the law that emerged in legal scholarship in the 1960s as a rejection of law's patriarchal bias, its use of men as the “norm,” and its view of women as the “other.” It argues that reform requires more than accommodation and assimilation into existing structures, and imagines the law as if women and men mattered equally. This is no small feat, as there is a long-standing tendency to think ...